Glacier Bay National Park
We began our day in Glacier Bay with a palpable sense of ice age conditions in the air. Mist and low clouds swirled amongst the peaks and from the deck we had a full-on front-face view of the Margerie Glacier. Periodically there would be a rumble and a roar with a big splash as blocks of ice the size of school buses “calved” off into the water.
During breakfast National Geographic Sea Bird moved down channel toward Johns Hopkins Inlet, where we were presented with one of the world’s finest panoramas as we rounded Jaw Point and were fixated by the soaring peaks rising high above a multi-striped river of ice grinding its way downslope toward a recently de-glaciated tidewater inlet. In the still water we could see a wondrous reflection of the mountains and glacier interspersed with an armada of icebergs large and small. On some of the bergs, harbor seals snoozed as they gently floated along. Arriving back at Tarr Inlet, we had a brief look at Lamplugh Glacier, which is now grounded on its own moraine and no longer reaches tidewater. The feature attraction here is a tunnel near the base of the glacier gushing massive amounts of melt water.
Continuing down the bay to Gloomy Knob, we spotted three mountain goats negotiating with ease the steep rocky slope above us. The smallest goat dislodged loose rocks several times while climbing, but seemed completely nonchalant about the hazard involved. Just around the corner at Tidal Inlet we had a brief glimpse of a foraging brown bear and a long sober look at an unstable mountainside. Here a big piece of the mountainside could crash into the inlet, creating a giant wave in the bay that could be capable of sinking a cruise ship. National Geographic Sea Bird with its unique hull design, could probably ride the waves like a surfer.
The Marble Islands were for the birds—and a few dozen sea lions. A variety of nesting seabirds were found here. The most excitement was generated by puffins who demonstrated their dubious landing skills as they splashed into the water or flopped onto the land. Glaucous-winged gull parents proudly displayed their chicks, who looked more like grey powder puffs than birds. Cormorants stretched their long necks and kittiwakes chirped their own names, while common murres and pigeon guillemots showed us variations on the prevailing color scheme of black and white. Further on at the Boulder Islands we got a good look at a huge raft of sea otters scattered through a kelp forest along the shore.
